Life
by Tanja P
Summary: It's a TIVA story or rather a story about Ziva without Tony...just read. No spoilers.


**This actually is a story I wrote some time ago in German, but now I reread it and decided to translate and publish it here. Hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own NCIS.**

A single shot penetrated the spooky silence.

Ziva, who has already hurried ahead, startled and turned around, just in time to see Tony slumping down. "Tony!", she ran towards him and turned him onto his back. "Zi..va…aarg", he brought out and arched in pain. A small runlet of blood came out of his mouth.

With trembling fingers Ziva dialled 911. "Hello, we need help. An agent has been shot. We're at the old harbour, please hurry up!"

Then she bent over Tony and stroke his cheek. "Tony, help will be there any minute, you have to hold on, do you understand?" But Tony only looked at her through glassy eyes.

"No, no", she shouted in despair and a tear rolled down her cheek. She tried to stop the bleeding, but the blood just seeped through her fingers. Ziva knew a deadly gun shot wound when she saw one and Tony has been hit directly into the lungs.

"No, no, no", she cried once again in despair and shook her partner. "Tony, stay with me, I need you, can you hear me?" Again and again she stroke over his face, her fingers trembling terribly. "Tony!"

One last time Tony came back from his delirium. "Zi…va, my…my time…has come. But you…you have to go…go on. Never forget…I l…love you. Always!" With these word his head sank back and his eyes closed forever.

When the paramedics arrived, they found a totally drained woman clinging convulsively to the corpse of her husband.

* * *

Slowly she entered the apartment without bothering to turn on the lights. It was already late, but she didn't want to go to bed. It was so cold without him. She stood by the window and watched the night slowly changing to day.

* * *

Eventually she sat down at the couch, but she didn't remove her gaze from the window. Sometime the telephone rang, the answering machine took the call. _Hello, here are Tony and Ziva. Unfortunately we can't answer you now, because we got better things to do._ It was Tony's voice. "Ziva, it's me, McGee. Gibbs, me and the others are worried about you. Please take the phone and talk to me!"

* * *

After a week, there were ten such calls on the answering machine.

* * *

On the eighth day, Ziva once again sat at the couch starring out of the window when suddenly she felt nauseous. She ran to the bathroom and threw up. Then she lay down on the bed and fell asleep immediately….

Suddenly she felt the warmth of a body that encompassed her from the back. Instinctively she knew it was Tony who came into their bed. "Tony, where have you been all the time?" "I had to go, Ziva. But I came now to tell you something important." She turned towards him. She hadn't felt so safe and secure in over a week. "Yeah, what?"

Tony sighed deeply. "You have to go on, Ziva. You can't hole up here. I died, but I'll always be with you, don't you never forget this. You have to be strong. Our baby has already lost his father, but it needs his mother. I love you, Ziva. I told you not to forget that.!" "But-", however Tony was gone.

All of a sudden, Ziva was awake. "Tony?" But the bed next to her, where Tony just lay, was cold. Totally desperate Ziva sank back into the pillows and for the first time in this week she could cry.

* * *

Two days later she went to see a doctor. "Congratulations, you're pregnant." Ziva smiled only slightly before she burst into tears again.

* * *

"Ziva, you have to press!" "I can't anymore. I just can't anymore." Abby, who has gone to the labour ward with her, didn't know what to do anymore.

_You have to be strong. Our baby has already lost his father, but it needs his mother. _Tony's words suddenly echoed inside Ziva's head. She gathered all her remaining power and pressed.

The cry of a new, little person filled the room. The doctor lay her little son into Ziva's arms.

Abby was all excited: "He looks exactly like Tony. How are you gonna name him?" "Well, what did you think, Abby? Anthony DiNozzo jr, of course." Abby smiled brightly: "Of course."

_You did very well. I love you, Ziva…_

* * *

Many years later:

Tony junior stand at the graveyard and looked at the graves in front of him. A young woman, his wife, hold his hand tightly.

_Here rest_

_Anthony D. DiNozzo_

_and his wife_

_Ziva David-DiNozzo_

_May they be always together_

"Now she's finally with Dad.", said young Tony. "That's where she belongs. Fare well, mum, I love you"

Together the pair turned around and walked towards the gate. Young Tony said: "Come on, let's go back to NCIS. The boss doesn't like to wait." The boss laughed: "Yeah, McGee can really be strict sometimes. But before we have to go and see Abby. She wants to give us those black roses for the graves."

They both had to laugh out loud and arm in arm they left the graveyard.

_

* * *

_

I love you. Always…

**The End.**


End file.
